Rain by Hone Tuwhare: sensory aspect for design proposal

I can hear you
making small holes
in the silence
rain

If I were deaf
the pores of my skin
would open to you
and shut

And I
should know you
by the lick of you
if I were blind

the something
special smell of you
when the sun cakes
the ground

the steady
drum-roll sound
you make
when the wind drops

But if I
should not hear
smell or feel or see
you

you would still
define me
disperse me
wash over me
rain

Hone Tuwhare 1922-2008 

In this poem, Hone Tuwhare talks to the rain as if it were a person. He describes his strong emotions he has from experiencing rain through his different senses. The rain could almost be referred to as a person, a lover, whom he’s obsessed with. There is a pattern in this poem with the word Tuwhare uses. Its not very obvious and it’s difficult to understand what it mean exactly. Might just be the style of writing- an artistic coice relating to the senses i.e. cake and lick.

As part of this exercise we were asked to do a drawing of what we see, our own perspective of the poem.

My drawing is shown above. I tried to capture what I knew of rain as a child. Driving home in the backseat late at night. Either from swimming lessons, dance class, or a family dinner. Id catch the rain droplets rolling down the window, watching as if it were a race, seeing which one would roll the fastest. Then there would be the drawings out of the misty glass windows. Once finished with the masterpiece, Id wiped it away with the sleeve of my arm; as if it were never there.

When designing a space it is important to consider the different senses and how it will affect each one. Are there particular things that stir up old memories? Happy? Sad? Will it create new memories? What impact does the space have on individuals? What will they experience, and feel? Sensory components…

Site Model Progress…

My group this week continued with building our model. We drew out the shape of the building on our contours from the measurements we took. This would mean that we could easily slot in our individual bathhouse designs into the cut out. It would also demonstrate accurately, the three meter drop from street level at the front,to the basement. We would also be modeling the rest of the Dadley building which would also be placed nicely into the cut out.

We started constructing the Dadley building with a more flimsy white card and masking tape. We also started thinking about the pocket forest we were gonna collectively share. Moira made these trees with the lichen she found on One Tree Hill.

With stronger cardboard (pasted formacote 1000MIC), our building was complete, with space underneath for our basement level to go in separately.